In Review--Dance of Spiders
World Newpoli Tempo Antico Beartones My first impressions of the Italian Tarantata folkloric tradition came from grainy video footage of Italian women spinning in a trance caused by the bite of a tarantula spider. I experienced my second impression of Tarantata when Alessandra Belloni’s Dance of the Ancient Spider (Sounds True) showed up in my mailbox in 2006. At that point, I gleaned the wisdom of the true purpose of this ancient ritualistic dance and the rousing songs that accompanied the frenzied dance (to heal women’s sexual issues and repression). While the dance and songs explore healing components, you can also find the tradition presented as folkloric music in concerts and on recordings. The founding members of Newpoli explored their Italian culture after arriving in the US to study jazz at Berklee College of Music. On their third recording Tempo Antico , the musicians travel as far ba...